Even today, UX Design is too often perceived as a tactic to simply “make things user-friendly.” To combat that oversimplification, UX designers often shroud their work in a mysterious cloud of specialized tools and jargon. This mystery gives designers (of every sort – visual, UX, interaction, et al) a false perception of value, uniqueness and control over their process and work.

In actuality, this self-imposed mystery drives divisions between designers and their teams. Designers need to stop looking at their work in terms of “trade secrets” and start open sourcing their process. Through this transparency, the cloud lifts and the true value of Design becomes clear, teams become more inclusive and productive while designers are become even more critical to the success of software products.

In this session you will learn:

Why self-imposed Design mystery makes life as a designer and cross-functional team member harder

How revealing design secrets and including non-designer team members in the process leads to more productive, highly collaborative teams

How transparency makes UX design more tangible to everyone on the team and more valuable to your organization

Why designers are also product people

5 tactics for you to immediately begin open sourcing UX Design, creating an inclusive, team-based product development culture and increasing your team’s efficacy and productivity

Jeff Gothelf

Proof

Jeff Gothelf has spent a 14 year career as an interaction designer, Agile practitioner, user experience team leader and blogger. He is one of the leading voices on the topic of Agile UX and Lean UX. In addition, Jeff is the author of the upcoming O’Reilly book (2012), Lean UX: Getting Out of the Deliverables Business. He is a highly sought-after international speaker having presented at EuroIA, SXSW, IA Summit, Interaction (IxDA), London IA, the Agile conference and Startup Lessons Learned. Jeff has led cross-functional product design teams at TheLadders, Publicis Modem, WebTrends, Fidelity, AOL while maintaining a strong advisory and mentorship presence in the startup communities of New York City and Silicon Valley.

Comments

Denise Paolucci

07/18/2012 11:00am PDT

I am enjoying listening to you talk very much, but your slides are impossible to read because of small text size and zero contrast between text color and photograph backgrounds. Please remember those of us who do not have perfect vision, and think about accessibility when you design your slides!